Saint Pardulphus (Pardoux) of Sardent

The blessed Pardoux re Le bienheureux Pardoux Abbot of Sardent and Guéret, celebrated for his miracles and holiness in Aquitaine. ached a great old age; he attained almost his eightieth year; his face shone with an angelic sweetness and his hair had become a brilliant white; he was not, however, weakened by any infirmity, and it is even believed that he had recovered his sight. On a Sunday, the 6th of October in the year 737, he felt that his death was near and fell asleep for a few moments. When he was awakened, he said to his brothers who surrounded him: "What is this trumpet that I heard at the door of the monastery?" The religious then understood that the choir of angels was going to receive his soul and introduce it into the heavenly dwellings. At the same hour, one of his disciples heard voices singing in the sky. It was the moment when the Saint rendered his soul to God.

He is represented as blind and healing the blind who come to him.

He was buried in a nearby church, dedicated to Saint Aubin, and the people of the region have since regarded him as their patron and protector because of the great miracles performed at his tomb. These miracles were so frequent, says an ancient author, that he was considered in the Aquitaines as another Saint Martin. His relics were kept with great care, and the bishops of Limoges declared them authentic several times, notably in the years 1623 and 1712. The chronicler Geoffroy du Vigeois says that they were taken to Sarlat (Dordogne) and from there to Arnaç, around the year 1028; but it is probable that this transport should be understood as referring only to a part of the body. Several parishes in Périgord bear his name, and one can see a fountain of the same name in Saint-Pardoux-Larivière.

The office and litanies of Saint Pardoux, printed in Guéret in 1635, are of great beauty. One finds there this beautiful antiphon for Vespers:

| O lampas Ecclesiae, | O lamp of the Church, | | --- | --- | | Gemma paritatis, | Pearl of purity, | | Sylloculum munditiae, | Mirror of chastity, | | Cella sanctitatis, | Sanctuary of holiness, | | Linca justitiae, | Garment of justice, | | Exemplar virtutis, | Model of virtue, | | Adelanti familiae | Grant to your children who implore you | | Fer quem salutis. | The grace to work out their salvation. |

The Proper of Sarlat offers, on October 10, this graceful prayer of the Saint: Deus, qui in corporali excitate copioso spiritus splendore beatum Perdulphum, confessorem tuum, illustrati; ejus meritis et precibus calcete nobis lumen largiter infunde, quo omnes mundi fabricas detegentes, ad aërcum gloriae tuae claritatem semper intendamus. — "O God, who did not wish to deprive Saint Pardoux, your servant, of the light of the body, except to lavish upon him that of the spirit, pour into our souls this precious light which, by making us discover all the errors with which this world is filled, will allow us to one day lose ourselves in the ocean of the splendors of your glory."

We owe this notice to the kindness of Abbé Antoine Ricard; he drew it from the work entitled: La Vie et les Miracles de saint Pardoux, by Conturier de la Prugne. Guéret, 1721.

Saint Prudent Saint Prudent Deacon and martyr from Narbonne of the 3rd century whose relics are in Bèze. , from a noble Narbonn ese family, narbonnaise City of origin and martyrdom of Saint Prudentius. was begotten into the Christian life from his birth (3rd century), and received from heaven, along with the best gifts of mind and heart, an easy-going character and a resolute will. He achieved great success in the study of letters, and seeing the early wisdom of his conduct, there was no doubt that his soul was the sanctuary of the Holy Spirit.

Honored with the diaconate, he shone in the assembly of the faithful, like a sun at its zenith, by the brilliance of his teaching and the holiness of his life manifested by numerous miracles. This is why the furious demon stirred up the hatred of his minions to destroy him. After loading him with chains and tormenting him cruelly, they crushed his skull with a mason's hammer, on the third day of September.

The executioners tore the martyr's body from the sepulcher where the Christians had buried him and threw it as fodder to birds of prey and unclean animals. But God, who guards the bones of the Saints, kept the beasts away and allowed the faithful to rescue it from profanation and bury it secretly. When peace returned to the Church, they hastened to place the holy relics in a tomb with the instrument of martyrdom and to raise an oratory or church above it. This small church was burned by the Saracens in the 8th century, and its revenues were given by Charles Martel to one of his men-at-arms. Now, in 882, Gédon, Bishop of Langres, returning from Santiago de Compostela, stopped to spend the night in an inn near Narbonne, and there he learned that Saint Prudent, martyr, rested in a nearby chapel. He went there immediately to venerate him and recite Matins; he opened the reliquary placed behind the altar and knelt with respect. Seeing this reliquary falling into dust and the linens rotting, he wept, and in his sorrow, he had the thought of taking the relics away in order to honor them better: "O holy martyr," he said aloud, "how happy we would be if you would consent to follow us!"

Responding to this desire, the prelate's chaplain, a very learned man of skillful eloquence, represented to him that, given the abandonment of the relics in a ruined chapel where the holy mysteries are celebrated only once a year, it is permissible to take them, with the intention of rendering them the worship that is their due. The bishop allowed himself to be persuaded and, without further discussion, took the sacred bones and hastened toward Burgundy. Upon arriving in his diocese, he announced to the people the treasure he was bringing; immediately a large crowd formed a procession for him, and miracles attested to the power of the martyr and his joy at being thus glorified. On October 6, 883, the pious bishop deposited the relics at the m onastery of Bèze, monastère de Bèze Primary site for the preservation of the saint's relics in Burgundy. and to provide for the expenses incurred by the influx of pilgrims, he granted the monks "the prebend of Saint-Mamès of Lux-le-Haut, the chapel of Saint-Marcellin, the Ontaillez with its church dedicated to Saint Hippolytus, and the church of Chasueil," threatening with anathemas and eternal punishment any sacrilegious person who would dare to infringe upon these donations.

The trust of the faithful was magnificently rewarded. Paralytics, the blind, and the possessed from Bière, Bourberain, Blagny, Fleix, Manioche, Saint-Seine, Pouilly-sur-Vingeanne, Lux, Viévigne, Is-sur-Tille, Echirey, Lantenay, Fleurey, Courchamp, and other places were healed or delivered!

The abbey church, though vast and spacious, could not contain the pilgrims, so a monk, Grimerius, built a chapel on a nearby mound where Abbot Etienne placed the bust of the holy martyr, so that everyone could satisfy their devotion at leisure, without disturbing the silence of the cloisters or interrupting the offices.

In 887, as the Normans approached, the monks of Bèze transported the body of Saint Prudent to Saint-Etienne of Dijon and placed it before the high altar. When the tide of the invasion had passed, those who had escaped death rebuilt the ruins of the abbey and came to ask for Saint Prudent back. The people of Dijon refused; but, compelled to obey the injunction of the diocesan bishop, Gauthier of Langres, they feigned submission, and, in reality, they gave the body of Saint Silvin.

The secret kept, the fraud appeared to succeed; but one day when the bishop was in Dijon, Saint Prudent ap peared to him saint Prudent Deacon and martyr from Narbonne of the 3rd century whose relics are in Bèze. and said: "What! Pious pontiff, do you remain satisfied with such an exchange, and does it please you that another be honored under my name in the sanctuary that was built for me and on the seat that was raised for me?" The bishop, surprised, asked to understand, then immediately summoned the priests of Saint-Etienne, and after blaming their ruse, he declared them struck with anathema as long as they kept the relics.

The guilty, thus humiliated, set about to obey, and Saint Prudent was returned with great pomp from Dijon to Bèze (931). That day, a blind man from Viévigne, named Aldegandus, recovered his sight.

On June 8, 1116, the body of Saint Pardulphus was carried to the great pleas of God, held between Lux and Til-Châtel, by Jucerand, Bishop of Langres, under the presidency of Guy of Burgundy, Archbishop of Vienne, who was pope under t he name of Calixte II Archbishop of Vienne who became pope, present at the Pleas of God in 1116. Callixtus II, to put an end to the quarrels, lawsuits, and other evils from which the province suffered. It was placed under a temple of greenery with other saints, and several great miracles occurred there.

Parcels of the relics of Saint Pardulphus were granted, in 1675, to the church of Châtillon-sur-Seine, and, in 1686, to the city of Narbonne.

The relics of Saint Pardulphus, those of Saint Silvin, and of Saint Regisilde, having escaped all the disasters which, from century to century, have fallen upon the abbey of Bèze, enrich the parish church.

Excerpt from the Life of the Saints of the diocese of Dijon, by Abbé Replus.